According to Wijnijnga, it means the Russians are preparing an operation. “This in turn means that what the Russians are preparing on the ground is not going well and air support is needed.”
These developments at the front make the question of whether fighter planes will be delivered to Ukraine all the more urgent. However, Wijninga cannot say whether anything has actually been decided on the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine.
Ramstein
The NATO meeting was preceded by a meeting of the contact group of countries supporting Ukraine, the Ramstein group. There will no doubt be talk of the delivery of heavy equipment, including F-16s, but what was decided there has not been made public. I think they didn’t publish anything because right after that was the NATO meeting. Maybe something will come out this afternoon.’
American green light
What Wijninga knows is that NATO itself will not take a position on supplying fighter jets to Ukraine, NATO will leave that to individual member states. “In the corridors, the Americans say they won’t deliver, but they won’t interfere if others want it.”
Incidentally, the Ukrainian military is not defenseless against a possible Russian air offensive. “Ukrainians received a lot of air defense systems, maybe even patriots. A wide variety of air defense systems are available with different ranges, heights and platforms. The Russians therefore have to take losses into account, which is also why they haven’t done it so far.” (air raids, ed)
According to Wijninga, Russian commander Gerasimov will do everything to conquer Donbass by March. After all, this is what Putin gave him. The structure of the air fleet must therefore be seen in this light.
Danger
Whether F-16s or other fighters are a match for the Russian fighters remains to be seen. «The planes used by the Russians are the Sukhoi Su-35 and the Sukhoi Su-30, which are very modern aircraft. The Sukhoi 35 in particular is a very capable aircraft, more modern than the F-16. I also think that an F-16 is no match for a Sukhoi, also due to the weapons package it carries. So this is really a danger.”
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